“Ah, Master!”

Jae-hee’s face lit up the moment he spotted Ghost sitting by his hospital bed. “Did you come to see me?”

“…Something like that.”

“Are you peeling that apple for me?”

“Nope.” Ghost popped a beautifully peeled apple slice into her own mouth. “It’s for me. I like apples.”

Jae-hee glared speechlessly, his round eyes wide with dissatisfaction.

Ghost just smirked. “Just kidding, kid. Here.”

She flicked the apple slices over to him one by one.

As Jae-hee happily munched away, Ghost gestured with her chin. “Remember what happened last night?”

“Last night? Oh… right.”

After they’d lost the Crimson Poverty Front.

A royally pissed Hae-eun had torn into the guards for letting the enemy infiltrate. But Jae-hee couldn’t exactly blame them. Who could have possibly imagined someone would invade the ship in the middle of the night on a glider?

The vice-captain, head of security, had taken full responsibility, grimly ordering all protocols to be reinforced.

After the storm passed, a still-fuming Hae-eun had gathered the mission survivors and broken out the soju, forcing Jae-hee to drink with them.

Hae-eun, Ghost, and Cashier could all drink like fish, but it was Jae-hee’s first time, and he’d suffered for it. To make matters worse, he’d already been hospitalized for muscle pain.

He’d passed out and been carried back to the Clinic—though since he’d already paid for the room, he figured he had every right to lie there until noon anyway.

“Oh, right. Where’s the Doctor?” he asked, looking around the Clinic and noticing her absence.

Ghost, now gnawing on the apple core, answered, “Took the commander’s private jet to a military hospital. Heard the surgery went well this morning.”

Paradise Lost had two transport aircraft. One was the post-office-disguised plane used for missions; the other was the private jet Hae-eun used for official business. 

The commander’s jet was faster and more durable, and that’s what had been used to transfer the Doctor.

“I hope she’ll be okay.”

“She won’t die. She’s got her ability… but it’ll be a while before she’s back.”

With their only doctor seriously injured and off-ship, the Clinic would be hard-pressed to function.

“Luckily, it seems there’s someone with a medical background among the recent inmates.”

“Really? That’s a relief.”

“They’ll manage to keep things running, but you should try not to get hurt until the Doctor returns.”

As if getting hurt was something he could control…

Jae-hee hesitated before finally bringing up the topic he’d been avoiding. “Do you think… Silken Bodhisattva will be okay?”

“…”

Ghost, having picked the apple core clean, tossed it perfectly into the trash can and scratched her chin.

“No way to know.”

“…”

“But she’s been around the block. She’ll find a way to survive.” Ghost added quietly, “We have to believe that.”

She exhaled. “Anyway, the mission was a failure.”

“Oh, right!” The reality of their failure hit him anew, and he groaned. “My first one.”

“Mission failures are common in the Black Parade. You’ve just been lucky enough to succeed every time until now.”

His one-hundred-percent mission success rate had, in fact, been an incredible record. Even for Ghost, failure was not uncommon.

Still, Jae-hee was disappointed to see his streak broken and let out a whine.

“Aw… so ends the legend of Candidate Number One, Boy… the man with a one-hundred-percent mission success rate, the man with a one-hundred-percent pledge fulfillment rate…”

“The hell is a ‘pledge fulfillment rate’?”

Looking baffled, Ghost put away the fruit knife—which, on closer inspection, was actually a bookmark—and added, “The commander is paying out a consolation bonus, though.”

“Huh? Seriously? Sweet!”

He shot up in bed, forgetting himself, only to groan and fall right back down as his muscles screamed in protest.

“I mean, it’s not exactly a time to celebrate, but… Ugh.”

“Rest up. Now that I’ve seen you’re okay, I’m leaving.”

As she headed for the door, Ghost wagged a finger at him. “And go easy on the workouts. Everything in moderation.”

“Yessir… Oh, Master!” Jae-hee quickly raised a hand. “Can I book a training session for tomorrow?!”

“Were you even listening to me? And since when do you need a reservation?”

Ghost waved a dismissive hand. “Come by if you feel up to it.”

“Yessum!”

“And you know the next session is the last one, right?”

“What?” Jae-hee’s eyes went wide.

Ghost’s brow furrowed. “What’s with that look? It was a seven-day contract from the start.”

“Huh? Wait, is it already the seventh day?”

“Not ‘already.’ It’s finally the seventh day.”

They only counted days with one-on-one training, so they still hadn’t completed the seven sessions, even though it had been nearly a month since their first lesson.

Jae-hee’s face went pale, and he waved his arms frantically.

“Th-then cancel my reservation for tomorrow! Please, cancel it! Something suddenly came up!”

“Like what?”

“Well, uh, I’ll have to see when tomorrow gets here…”

Jae-hee’s gaze darted around the room, unable to meet hers.

He suddenly clutched his leg and cried out. “Ow, ow, ow! You know what, I’m in too much pain! I can’t make it! Let’s go with that—I’ll have to postpone because of the pain!”

“Give me a break.”

Ghost scoffed and left the room with a wave. “The extension period is a maximum of seven days, dear customer. After that, your session will be marked as used.”

“Nooo!” Jae-hee shrieked, clutching his head.

Just then, Ghost, who had been walking down the hall, poked her head back into the room.

“You could always get more outing permits.”

“…!”

“Wasn’t that the deal?”

With a smirk, Ghost heartlessly strode away.

Jae-hee stopped tearing at his hair and shot upright. “That’s right, outing permits!”

He’d offered a seven-day permit to become her disciple for seven days. All he had to do was get more and pay her again.

Jae-hee shouted, his voice filled with urgency, “I have to get more outing permits!”

***

[Mission Report

[A-Rank] Cashier: Survived

[AA-Rank] Boy: Survived

[Old S] Ghost: Survived

- None

- 50,000 P.€ (Consolation Bonus)

***

“This isn’t about the last mission’s rewards!”

Jae-hee swiped away the Credit deposit notification on his Null Cuff, bolted out of the Clinic, and sprinted toward his room on the 1st Deck.

“Razor! Status Window!”

But neither of them was there.

“Where could they be at a time like this?!”

He tumbled back out of the room and rushed to the mess hall. He figured the Patissier, who was always baking, might know where they were.

And so, to the Mess Hall.

The Patissier, wiping sweat from his brow in front of the oven, let out a small “Ah!” and answered.

“Those two? They said they were going to an upper deck to register for something today.”

“Where on the upper decks?!”

“I’m not sure… Oh, I think they said something about a theater?”

A theater?

Jae-hee tilted his head. Why a theater?

At any rate, narrowing it down to a theater drastically reduced the search area. There were only four on the entire cruise ship.

“Thanks, Mr. Patissier! See you later!”

“Okay~ Oh, tonight’s special is curry bread. Be sure to come by!”

“Really?! Awesome! Curry bread!”

Jae-hee sang “Curry bread~ curry bread~” as he walked down the hall before snapping back to his senses.

This was no time for curry bread.

He stopped in front of a cross-section diagram of the ship on the wall and groaned.

There are four theaters on Paradise Lost…

The largest was the Grand Theater, which spanned three floors from the 8th to the 10th Deck, but it was currently out of use.

That left three: the Forward Theater in the bow section of Decks 2 and 3; the Central Theater in the midship section of Decks 4 and 5; and the Aft Theater in the stern section of Decks 6 and 7.

Normally, movement between decks was strictly controlled, but the paths to the theaters were open to all. The elevators, however, were off-limits.

If they had to walk… Status Window’s stamina probably wouldn’t get him to a theater on a higher deck. They must have gone somewhere close.

It was a slightly biased but accurate assessment. Jae-hee immediately ran to the nearest option, the Forward Theater.

He peeked his head into the dark theater, where a movie was playing.

On screen:

«Oh, Smith! I have a husband…»

«I don’t care.»

«Ahhhh!»

It was a lewd adult film.

“Yikes!”

Startled, Jae-hee jumped back, covering his eyes. He peeked through his fingers, pretending to scan the audience for Razor and Status Window while getting an eyeful, before snapping back to his senses.

“This is no time to be watching such filth!”

As Jae-hee quickly ran out, prisoners who had been dozing in their seats turned to look at the entrance in confusion.

At his second stop, the Central Theater, a suspicious-looking speaker was giving a sermon to a seated audience.

«My friends, what is a ‘beloved’? It is the one we have always longed for—the one we adored, wept for, and thirsted after through many long years…»

Some kind of cultish snake-oil pitch was underway. Having been pestered by hucksters and jade-mat salesmen since he was a child, Jae-hee got a bad feeling just from the speaker’s tone.

After confirming that Razor and Status Window weren’t in the audience, he quickly ducked back outside.

“Whoooo!”

A moment later, a commotion erupted inside the Central Theater, and a loud noise echoed behind him.

But Jae-hee didn’t look back; he just kept running.

“I had no idea this cruise ship offered so many cultural activities…”

And finally, the last stop: the Aft Theater in the stern section of Decks 6 and 7.

Wheezing and gasping, Jae-hee was drenched in sweat from running all over the ship. Figuring he’d done enough cardio for the day, he reached the Aft Theater and spotted Razor and Status Window just as they were walking out.

“Razor bro! Window…!”

He staggered toward them, gasping, and collapsed onto the floor. “Why’d you come all the way out here…? You were so hard to find…!”

The two greeted him casually.

“Oh, Boy-kun. Feelin’ better desu?”

“Heard you overdid it at the gym and passed out. That’s what happens when you don’t know your own limits, newbie.”

“That’s not what’s important right now!”

Jae-hee let them help him to his feet and flapped his limp arms. “The outing permits…! What did you guys do with your outing permits…?!”

“Outing permits?”

Razor and Status Window looked at each other, then answered hesitantly.

“We just got back from registering them as items for the auction.”

“Me too desu. We handled it together desu.”

Jae-hee blinked his round eyes. “The auction?”

“That’s right.” Razor grinned and pointed to the sign hanging above the entrance.

“Because tonight, right here in the Aft Theater, the biggest auction event on this ship… ‘Hell Auction’… is taking place desu!”

The sign, written in hideous, blood-red letters, read: ♨HELL AUCTION♨

Horrified, Jae-hee stammered, “H-Hell Auction?!”

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